Awlaki’s assassination, and that’s what it was, is a signal that the Obama administration intends to pursue the Long War on Terrorism to the ends of the earth, regardless of the consequences, even if it means an extra-judicial killing of an American citizen

There was one significant victory at the UN for Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, even if it was not the one he sought. He will not achieve statehood for his people at the world body, but he has fatally discredited the US as the arbiter of a Middle East peace

Even though climate change and peak fossil production have a common solution in the deliberate reduction of fossil fuel use, they can also be inverse problems. That is, in the worst case of a crash caused by financial collapse in a post-peak declining world, the climate is spared (not necessarily fixed, just better than the IPCC scenarios). Conversely, if alternative fossil fuels (tar sands, heavy crude, oil shale, etc.) are up to the task of preventing a peak-induced crash, then the atmosphere had better watch out!

The execution of Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on September 21, 2011 offers us more than a collective opportunity to mourn the passing of this man and reflect on who and what we are as a nation. It provides yet more incentive to look deeply at the root cause of not only the death penalty, but also the root cause of war, racism, the environmental crisis, the ultimate collapse of any economic system based on perpetual growth, and much more

The arguments supportive of the entry of foreign investment in multi-brand retail in India are highly overstated and backed by little evidence. On the contrary, real world experiences and empirical studies show that the benefits of FDI in retail sector are much fewer in comparison with the economic and social costs. In these circumstances, the opening up of multi-brand retail sector to big foreign players may prove counterproductive and catastrophic

Improvements in transportation and other energy related technologies are being reported every day. Most of the developments, however, are down in the technological weeds and involve technical concepts nearly incomprehensible to laymen; however, some of the reports do give insights into the directions in which our civilization may be evolving

A central aspect of our predicament is precisely that even the people who have managed to grasp just how severe that predicament is haven’t been able to turn that realization into a motive for meaningful action. Al Gore’s new mansion and frequent-flyer miles are a well-known example of this, but there are plenty of others

Wes Jackson believes that shifting from fragile annual monocultures to more hearty perennial grains grown in a mixture of plants (polycultures) is the key to a truly sustainable agriculture. Instead of a brittle industrial agriculture dependent on fossil fuels, Jackson’s research team is working to build a resilient agriculture modeled on natural ecosystems

Unlike many other economists, Heinberg- whose latest book describes The End of Growth- isn’t looking for when the recession will end and we’ll get back to “normal”. He believes our decades-long era of growth was based on aberrant set of conditions- namely cheap oil, but also cheap minerals, cheap food, etc- and that looking ahead, we need to prepare for a “new normal”

A typical example of the Guardian’s new strategy was on show this week in an article in the print edition’s comment pages – also available online and a far more prestigious platform than CiF – in which the paper commissioned a socialist writer, Andy Newman, to argue that the Israeli Jewish musician Gilad Atzmon was part of an anti-semitic trend discernible on the left

“Both of Ibrahim’s arms were cut off. He had a hole in his lung. Parts of his legs were missing. His kidney was in a bad condition…we need people to stand with us.” These were the words of an exhausted man as he described the condition of his dying son. Ibrahim Zaza was merely a 12-year-old boy. He and his cousin Mohammed, 14, were hit by an Israeli missile in Gaza, fired from an manned drone as they played in front of their house. He later died in an Israeli hospital

Iran's President demonstrated at Turtle Bay this month that he understands the problems, offers rational solutions and is ready for constructive dialogue. The next move is up to President Obama to extricate him and his country from the jaws of Zionism and to join with Iran and the community of nations with constructive proposals to help alleviate the challenges Iran's President enumerated

India contributed an army of 2.4 million men to assist the British war effort in World War 2. However India was rewarded by a British-imposed Bengal Famine (Bengali Holocaust, Indian Holocaust) that killed 6-7 million Indians in Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Orissa in the period 1942-1945. Australia was a major supplier of wheat but deliberately by-passed starving India , this boosting British food stocks and what was evidently a starvation-based military strategy to prevent Japanese advance into Bengal

In the world of weaponry, they are the sexiest things around. Others countries are desperate to have them. Almost anyone who writes about them becomes a groupie. Reporters exploring their onrushing future swoon at their potentially wondrous techno-talents. They are, of course, the pilotless drones, our grimly named Predators and Reapers

If there's one major thing we can do to help salvage remains of our “constitutional republic”, it's the same thing—turn off the TV. Americans who care enough about their country to really learn about their country need to just turn it OFF—kick TV and start getting more exercise in parts of the brain that distinguish us from animals

This is the time to take back America and make it into what it was supposed to be, “The land of the free” and be peace loving people. It's up to us to make this change. We need the government to respond to the people, not the corporations and the military-industrial-complex. This is the real world we live in. This is our chance

Much is being said by Republicans about a class war being waged by President Obama and Democrats. In their fantasy world this class war is attacking so called job creators. All this talk is pure nonsense, absolutely false and misleading, intentional political garbage designed to intentionally mislead gullible Americans stupid enough to believe the lies

From America, the most striking tactic has been the use of the ‘people’s microphone’. After a ban on using megaphones, the people at Occupywallstreet have taken to using this tactic in order to allow everyone in the crowd to hear the speaker

We write to protest the denial of entry to David Barsamian by Immigration Authorities at the New Delhi airport in the early hours of September 23, 2011, and we write to draw attention to the growing arbitrariness of the Indian Government in dealing with dissent of any kind

Providing bio-metric data like finger prints of ten fingers, iris scan etc for the identification number to public and private institutions is akin to wearing a radio collar. This is an act of subjecting oneself to constant surveillance which in itself is a dehumanizing act

Occupations are now being organized across the country, building up to a massive occupation of Washington, D.C., beginning October 6 th This is how it starts. There is no other moral option than nonviolent resistance. There is no other possible outcome than success. That's the beauty of ending an empire; victory is guaranteed sooner or later by the inevitability of imperial collapse

There's a complete pall of insecurity and gloom that's been pervading Azamgarh's residents. The youth are scared and their parents afraid to send their children out of their homes, be it for studies or jobs. Moreover, residents of Azamgarh have been forced to vacate their rooms by landlords in Delhi and other places

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, DC concluded Sunday with no agreement on specific measures to avert a default by Greece and the threat of a new financial meltdown and global depression

Events at the UN are creating a new clarity for Palestinians, reminding them that there can be no self-determination until they liberate themselves from the legacy of colonialism and the self-serving illusions of the ageing notables who now lead them. The old men in suits have had their day

All of humanity is involved in a global collapse that ranges from natural-resource decline to the current obsession, the multi-trillion-dollar financial crisis. The only real solution will be for individuals to make a personal decision to move away from the cities, because ultimately that is the only way to provide self-sufficiency and independence from the global economy

As a "living wage", at current wage rates declared under Minimum Wage Act, comes to Rs 247 per day for unskilled. Rs 32 touted by the Planning Commission as "below poverty line" is less than seven times the Minimum Wage which itself is a "subsistence wage". Thus Minimum Wage is seven times that of BPL rate

Everyone seems upset. Ironically, more upset with the definition of the poverty line and the criteria that has now become the butt of a national joke, are the economists and of course some members of the high-profile National Advisory Council

Several amongst us might have heard of the horrific shootings that took place at Paramakudi and Madurai on September 11. Officially seven people died when police opened fire on dalits who had gathered to pay their respects to Immanuel Sekaran

Three years after the Wall Street crash of 2008, finance ministers, central bankers and economists assembled in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank present a picture of perplexity and fear as the crisis spins out of control and lurches toward a full-scale depression

Dark clouds loom over Europe and the US and the time to tackle the problem is short. None but the International Monetary Fund and the UK chancellor make the warning. As desperate capital continues to press people with intolerable burdens Europe, broadly, is now a continent of protests, demonstrations, strikes, and possible political upheavals

Stan and Hannah Cooper are friends of William T. Hathaway from his college days. Both are Jewish, but they have diametrically opposed views about Israel, and their differences have become so bitter that they've decided to divorce. As the three of them talked about this, it became clear that their dispute is a microcosm of the conflict that is tearing the Jewish community apart and also destroying lives in an increasingly large part of the world

President Obama may have opened Pandora's box with his latest tax-the-rich rhetoric, but he'll try to keep the lid half-shut. Truly informing the public about just how rich the rich are — and just how much their taxes have been lowered over the decades — would certainly cause working people to demand much more from the wealthy than Obama is

Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation have eroded opportunities for SC/ST and marginalised people to retain the gains already achieved, what to talk about pacing with time and space. In this context the demand for reservation in private sector is a legitimate demand

For the near future the study foresees that a very large increase in oil prices would harm the energy-intensive agricultural systems that produce much of our food. Not only could the costs of fertilizers and pesticides become prohibitive, but the massive amount of oil-dependent transportation needed to move agricultural products long distances could make food unaffordable for many

Decision taking is not an easy task, unless you are forced by finding yourself staring at a cave bear in the eyes. That must be the reason why we are not reacting to major threats such as peak oil and global warming

In an epoch when financial pundits insist that manipulating the arcane symbols we call "money" can materialize petroleum in the bowels of the Earth, and a sizable fraction of Americans seem to think that chanting "Drill baby drill" as a mantra can accomplish the same improbable feat, it's probably past time to discuss the interface between magic and peak oil. The Archdruid plunges in where rationalists fear to tread, with one word of caution--that word "magic" may not mean what you think it means

Within 11 days of imposing a ban on the export of onions,the powerful traders lobby forced the government to lift the ban. Succumbing to pressure from the onion traders, who normally cry hoarse in the name of farmers, the speed at which the onion trade made the government to bendbackwards is a pointer to the monumental failure to curb food inflation

In a recent article called There Will Be Oil in the WSJ, Daniel Yergin once again attempts to debunk the concept of peak oil and sees global production capacity growing to 110 mmbpd by 2030, followed by slow decline. In this short report Euan Mearns take a quick look at his key arguments in an effort to bring further convergence between the peak oil and business-as-usual camps

Chief Minister Jayalalitha told the representatives of the members of the movement against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) that a Cabinet resolution against the plant would be passed. ‘As we got an assurance from her to that effect we called off our protest,’ one of the coordinators of the protest movement, said

The corporate deal over the Kara sea is a deal with global implications in more than one sense. It changes the balance of forces between giant corporations in the oil sector, and it heralds a new phase in the efforts of Arctic states to open up the region for exploration of fossil fuels, at the risk of an acceleration of climate change

Police disruption of food and water supply lines, arrests, and the destruction of tents and tarps sheltering peaceful protesters from the elements may bring hardship to the orderly occupation now taking place in Wall Street, but it also loudly heralds the opening skirmishes of the Second American Revolution

As a famous literary drunk once quipped, "Rome wasn't burned in a day." Change will not come with a victim-centered view of the world...including viewing the nation's toxically innocent, economic conscripts as mere victims of circumstance. Yes, young people make stupid choices--but treating them as victims does not serve them or the nation well

If you think it's far-fetched to believe They might pull off false flag evil even more sinister than 9/11 just for another round of massive record-breaking upward transfer of wealth, please learn as much as you can about what actually happened on 9/11—what all of the evidence says (at least evidence They weren't able to have quickly destroyed)

"Godse's Children Hindutva Terror in India" by the veteran writer Subhash Gatade is Pharos Media’s latest book in English on one of the hottest subjects in modern Indian history – Hindutva terror perpetrated by over a dozen terrorist outfits allied to the Sangh Parivar

The jarring report on over 2000 unmarked mass graves in Indian Held Kashmir that came to light last month failed to elicit a response from the United Nations. When pressed for comments, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon apologized that he had ‘no comments for now.' This is not just the UN lacking teeth; it is the UN being reduced to virtual dysfunction- that is, irrelevance to global context altogether

Although the Koodankulam nuclear power project is a Central Government project, the State Government does have rights and duties over the issues of land use, pollution control, fresh water supply, external security and so forth. Hence the State Government does have its duties and responsibilities to the people of Tamil Nadu

The Palestinian Authority's bid to the United Nations for Palestinian statehood is, at least in theory, supposed to circumvent the failed peace process. But in two crucial respects, the ill-conceived gambit actually makes things worse, amplifying the flaws of the process it seeks to replace. First, it excludes the Palestinian people from the decision-making process. And second, it entirely disconnects the discourse about statehood from reality

A speech by President Obama to the UN, written by William A. Cook without authorization, but one that we who find America's support for Zionist policies in Israel destructive to America, would like to hear

Any awkward reality finds its place in Gaza. “Babe, you missed our wedding,” is a common statement here. It’s not always that a groom can reach his bride on their wedding day. A while ago, my mother was invited to participate in a groom-free wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, the groom was not allowed a stamp on his passport and was turned back to Egypt

Why is nobody listening? Five reasons, beginning with the fact that it's not really "nobody." There are many people who know the world is going down the drain. They may not know exactly, but they know. They may not speak, but they know

The move towards a North American security perimeter is being done without congressional or parliamentary approval. There is no reason to trust that our governments will strike any kind of balance between security and freedom. That is why it is imperative that we demand more transparency and input

"I request you to kindly issue suitable instructions to the concerned authorities that further work on this project may be halted, until this issue is settled. I request you to kindly bestow your personal attention on this serious issue"

About 25000 people are gathered in Idinthakari village for protesting against Koodankulam nuclear plant demanding its closure. 127 people are on indefinite hunger strike from September 11. The protest in pictures

We have to make food democracy the core of the defense of our freedom and survival. We will either have food dictatorship for a while and then a collapse of our food systems and our societies, or we will succeed in building robust food democracies, resting on resilient ecosystems and resilient communities. There is still a chance for the second alternative

NATO bombed cities across Libya over the weekend as fighting continued in Sirte and Bani Walid between troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and the NATO-backed forces of the National Transition Council (NTC)

The lesson is that adequate storage appears at first-blush to border on impossible under the current profile of consumption in the U.S. But cut consumption down by a factor of five or so, and I become optimistic. Such deep cuts are not impossible: I can personally still participate in a western lifestyle at a fifth of the energy cost at home

The residents of Neelum Valley are worried about suspicious presence of some outsiders who have been seen in the surroundings of village Dodnial since last couple of weeks. Dressed in traditional Pakistani dress Shalwar Kameez and having long beards, majority of these outsiders speak Punjabi. There must be a reason behind their dubious presence in the area, but, nobody knows exactly what the nature of their activities

In the recent past British Prime Minister David Cameron, referring the Kashmir conflict, has already admitted that ‘Britain caused many of the world's problems’. Now it is time for British leadership to correct their historical mistakes by protecting human rights and democracy in Kashmir

This is 21st century India, where domestic violence seems to be acceptable and preferably pushed under the carpet. It’s ok to beat your wife but hush, don’t let the dogs out, keep the nastiness at home

The firing on Dalits by policemen and what happened on the September of 11th in Paramakudi, Tamil Nadu once again shows the brahminical nature of the Indian state and the casteist mentality of its police force. The firing led to the deaths of 7 Dalits

With the hunger strike crossing 7 days the situation of many of the 127 people on hunger strike in Idinthakarai has become critical. Twenty four persons who reached too critical were forcefully hospitalised today and given IV fluid in order to save their lives. Some fainted and were unconscious

The current situation is brittle. If there are severe financial dislocations, they could feed back and disrupt other systems, such as international trade and industrial agriculture. We could see political upheavals and reduced oil production, and because of all of these issues, reduced human food supply. The changes that may happen could be quite sudden, much faster than one might expect

Modern moral philosophers have tended to study ethics in a void, ignoring the insights of the natural and human sciences. The result has been a ‘technospheric’ ethic that seeks to equate progress and the moral good with economic expansion and the dominance of man over nature. A new ‘biospheric’ ethic is required: one that places ethical values in their appropriate context: that of mediating human behaviour in its relationship with society, the ecosystem, the biosphere and the Cosmos itself

In recent few years dozens of blasts, rocket attacks, gunship fires, and kidnappings have taken place. Today there is no family that has had not lost a beloved in this ongoing imposed terrorism. The people of Parachinar are being killed, slaughtered, kidnapped and their dead bodies are being mutilated after slaughtering and killing. The recently abducted were killed and then their dead bodies were set on fire

With the hunger strike crossing 6 days the situation of many of the 127 people on hunger strike in Indinthakarai is becoming more and more critical. With the deteriorating health situation of some of the fasters the doctors are concerned that some peoples condition could go beyond control if the fast continues and fasters are not heeding to the doctors advic

Policy makers take note: Governments that choose to measure happiness and that aim to increase it in ways that don’t involve increased consumption can still show success, while those that stick to GDP growth as their primary measure of national well-being will be forced to find increasingly inventive ways to explain their failure to very unhappy voters

The trend towards ever larger scale is neither natural nor inevitable. Instead, it is the consequence of policies enacted by governments – in virtually every country, from every part of the political spectrum – that favor the large and global over the small and local. Those policies can and must be reversed, if we are to avoid further social, economic, and ecological breakdown

No misinterpretation of international law can override Palestinians’ right to free movement in and out of Egypt just because they are also at the same time engaged in a struggle against Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid

How do the ongoing protests in Tel Aviv relate to the larger regional turmoil? What do the protests say about the current state of Zionism, and what do they mean for the occupation of Palestine? To answer these questions, one might begin by turning to a rather unexpected source: Israeli pop culture

Gilad Atzmon's insight into the organism created by the Zionist movement in his book, The Wandering Who , is explosive; it tears the veil off of Israel's apparent civility, its apparent friendship with the United States, and its expressed solicitude for western powers—Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Germany—exposing behind the veil, the assassin ready to slay any and all that interfere with its tribally focused ends

Register the poor. Transfer subsidies directly to the poor. Set up a Core Subsidy Management System (CSMS) to carry out the transfer of subsidy. Set up a National Information Utility (NIU) to run CSMS. Make sure that Total private ownership within NIUs is at least 51%

There is something terribly going wrong with agriculture.While nearly 40,000 farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu& Kashmir have defaulted on repayment to the State Bank of India alone tothe tune of Rs 600-crore, hundreds of farmers in the rice bowl of AndhraPradesh, comprising the fertile and irrigated East Godawari and West Godwaridistricts, have refused to cultivate paddy this year, declaring a ‘crop holiday’

Government of India’s plan to commission two 10,000 Megawatt VVER type reactors in Koodankulam in December 2011 has ignited the anger of people in the region. More than 15000 people have gathered every day at Idinthakarai. With the fast reaching the 6th day the situation of some of the people are slowly turning critical. The non-violent struggle from people are not being responded to with seriousness by the state government and central government

With their surprise visit to Tripoli Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron signaled that the scramble by the major powers for control of Libya’s oil wealth is in full swing

Is current U.S. foreign policy in Africa following a blueprint drawn up almost eight years ago by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, one of the most conservative think tanks in the world? Although it seems odd that a Democratic administration would have anything in common with the extremists at Heritage, the convergence in policy and practice between the two is disturbing

America and Oil. It’s like bacon and eggs, Batman and Robin. As the old song lyric went, you can’t have one without the other. Once upon a time, it was also a surefire formula for national greatness and global preeminence. Now, it’s a guarantee of a trip to hell in a hand basket. The Chinese know it. Does Washington?

What China is teaching us is that the western economic model—the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy—will not work for the world. If it does not work for China, it will not work for India, which by 2035 is projected to have an even larger population than China

The release of the International Energy Agency's Oil Market Report for September is a good time to review the status of our ongoing crisis for the report updates the IEA's latest thinking on the prospects for global oil

Because of our tendency of disbelieving bad news, we chose to ignore the warning of impending collapse that came from the Limits study. In so doing, we have lost more than 30 years. Today, we are ignoring the warnings that come from climate science and we may be making an even worse mistake. There are signs that we may be starting to heed the warnings, but we are still doing too little, too late. Cassandra's curse is still be upon us

Economically insecure people - everybody in today's world - discount the effects of their actions on their kids future. The Bottleneck is only beginning and things will only get worse as peak everything bites and insecure people try anything with ever diminishing ethical constraint - like Easter Islanders or Sahel refugees cutting down the few remaining trees. What are we going to do about it?

Recently released Wikileaks Ethiopia files expose how Ethiopian security forces planted 3 bombs that went off in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on September 16, 2006 and then blamed Eritrea and the Oromo resistance for the blasts in a case that raises serious questions about the claims made about the bombing attempt against the African Union summit earlier this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Before Palestinian politicians go to the General Assembly of the United Nations to ask for recognition of their nominal state, they have to answer this question: Is this what the Palestinian people want?

If the civilians had been Israelis, and the commandos part of a Turkish force, all hell would have broken loose. Israel and the US would have declared Turkey a pariah state. Turkey, however, merely demanded an apology, and it was affronted further for doing so

The poverty rate in the US soared to 15.1 percent in 2010, its highest level since 1993, according to a report released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday. Household incomes continued to fall sharply, amidst the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the number of people without health insurance increased

The Empire is waging war in countries and struggling with poverty in home. Good news is not coming from any of the fronts. In home, median household income has declined, the poverty rate has increased, and farmers are having hard days. The percentage of the Americans living in poverty in 2010 mounted to the highest level since 1993

When governments fall deaf to social reality, it's up to working people to get loud. Obama's jobs speech proved that the Democrats -- like the Republicans -- suffer from massive hearing loss, unable to listen to the millions of people suffering from the intractable jobs depression

The question remains open while remembering 9/11 is about justice. Justice, George W. Bush argued, will be done. The logic of trauma at this juncture is bound up with the ‘consequentialism’ of the mere understanding of trauma itself

"A few days ago I posted a video on my face book wall, in which a Kashmiri militant, known as Bitta Karate confesses to have killed many Kashmiri Hindu Pandits, not because they were criminals or they endangered his life but because he was ordered by his senior leaders of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). He said he does not remember how many Hindu Pandits he killed; and if they were innocent or not. He had orders to kill and he did that"

Comprehending these points with open minds and hearts can really facilitate ways for interfaith harmony and there would be no room for the Islam-bashing terms like Islamophobia, Islamic terrorism, Islamic militancy and so on

The international pressure on the Al Khalifa regime has forced it to “drink the poison” and release the medical staff whose members had been accused by the Al Khalifa and Al Saud officials of the most serious crimes, including killing patients, falsifying evidence and plotting to overthrow the regime. Their release on Tuesday 6th September has exposed the lies, fabrications and most important of all, the crimes, committed by the regime

If the end of tyranny means the end of peace between Egypt and Israel, it is a price the Egyptians would be willing to pay. As William Allen White puts it: “peace without justice is tyranny” The Palestinians so far had tyranny without the peace, and the Egyptians had the Tyranny of peace, other peoples in the Arab world had peaceful tyrannies

Both phenomenon are based on theft, oppression and power abuse. And thus both phenomenon are interdependent and the fall of one will necessarily lead to the fall of the other. This does not mean that this will happen tomorrow but the courses of these historical events indicate beyond doubt towards the disappearance of these two phenomenon

Violence sails along the winds of antagonism. Undoubtedly, when a Middle East antagonist faces extinction, and that will happen, that nation will use the nuclear alternative. Recognition of a Palestinian state initiates a reversal of the trend to the larger danger and saves a great many from catastrophe. What more can those who value life want for themselves and others?

Anyone who still believes that U.S. workers and the labor movement are incapable of mounting a struggle against the conditions that the economic crisis is forcing on us has not been paying attention. On the morning of September 8th, when 500 International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 21 members and their supporters took over the Port of Longview in the state of Washington

Now as the matters stand a large section of dalits and Muslims are standing up to raise their voices against the ‘Anna claim’ that it is an inclusive upsurge. Congress in its frustration said that Anna Hazare is an agent of RSS, how far is this true?

On September 7, Jairam Ramesh introduced the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 in the Lok Sabha within six days of the end of the public comment period on the bill that is to replace a 116 year old colonial law. This bill argues for a perfect land market, unrestrained urbanisation and industrialisation

The very fact that most people (I think) consider a crash to be unlikely is in some ways the most scary aspect of the story: our guard is down. Only by taking the crash scenario seriously can we take concrete actions to avoid it

A culture falls apart when the dreams of its youth are rejected and the visions of its elders are neglected. This country is moving closer to the kind of lack of vision and lack of wisdom that precipitates such a fall

After every blast every Muslim youth fears that he could be next. They can be, in fact, are, easily picked up, tortured, packed and thrown into jails, sometimes even killed in cold blood. In India today, to be a Muslim is to be encounterable, to be constantly suspected of being a terrorist, to be illegally detainable and severely tortured, to have the possibility of being killed without being questioned, no matter whether one is a believer, agnostic or an atheist

This situation of no dialogue between Anna's group and other people's movements in the last few months also needs to be changed and India Against Corruption has to be more accountable and involve real civil society in their decision making process. If we do not take these steps now, the entire essence of people's movements would be lost forever

According to the World Wind Energy Association, the electrical wind power produced today is ~0.045 TW and this type of energy is growing at an annual rate of > 25%. If the present growth rate continues, we would reach the 1 TW we estimated in less than 15 years. This limit poses important limitations to the expansion of this energy. Since the present exergy consumption of all energies is ~17 TW, it implies that no more than 6% of today’s primary energy can be obtained from the wind

As Americans continue to mourn their own innocent victims, the world is watching for some sign of equal compassion for the immeasurably more numerous innocent victims of America's wars in poor nations since end of WW II. Martin Luther King Jr. not only had such compassion but awoke to a determination to speak out against this massive destruction of lives caused by powerful investor conspiracies of war

Simple maths tells me that a building can't fall at close to free fall speed unless all but the tiniest resistance posed by the structure below has first been removed. I wonder if they called Isaac Newton a conspiracy theorist when that apple hit him on the noggin and he started babbling about something called gravity? Probably

Recently an ignoramus feigning to have discovered a profound aspect of Dr Ambedkar presented a paper titled “Ambedkar- The Forgotten Free Market Economist” at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Unfortunately, Dalits would not understand that calling him a free market economist is the worst abuse that can be hurled at him. Rather it is beyond abuse, and is an attempt at character assassination

Our lesson is to join the political movement for the achievement of the basic economic and social rights of the people keeping aloft the flag of human rights, not sacrtificing it, to the pedastal of any other force

It is important to untangle the ways in which gender and capitalism have been intertwined in the reactionary discourse in urban India, but it seems equally vital to examine how gender discrimination is a part of the multiple disparities exacerbated by corporate capitalism

I favor, like Ms Tilley, one unified state with equal rights for all its citizens regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. But the more immediate and urgent problem is to halt the continual expansion of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians and to discredit Netanyahu's argument that the occupied territories are 'disputed territories' rather than 'illegally occupied' territories

The Palmer Report seems to fault seriously the manner by which the Israeli enforced the blockade, but unfortunately upheld the underlying legality of both the blockade and the right of enforcement, and that is the rub. Such a conclusion contradicted the earlier finding of a more expert panel established by the Human Rights Council

Israel is a rogue state and should be treated as such. It cannot be allowed to get away with murder of humanitarian aid workers. Just as no wise counseling helps to amend the evil character of a wicked person, the rogue character of the government of Israel simply cannot be amended by either pleading or begging. It needs a hard slap!

The NATO invasion of Libya was basically a response to the “Arab spring” : the popular uprisings which spread from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The NATO assault formed part of a general counter-attack designed to contain and reverse the popular democratic and anti-imperialist movements which had ousted or were on the verge of overthrowing US-client dictators

This observer has been repeatedly assured by Libyan officials in Tripoli that Palestinians in Libya are welcomed, will retain all their civil rights and will in no way be discriminated against or pressured due to some Palestinians presumably favoring the NTC

After the end of the strike against corporate giant Verizon, with 45,000 Communications Workers and Electrical Workers participating, it would be timely to consider the significance of strikes and the role they can potentially play in organizing and politically empowering working people

When was it that the most extremely disturbed inmates seized control of the madhouse known as the American political system? We know they are wielding decisive influence within the two-party structure by their destructive antics in Washington and various state capitals, but when and how did this happen?

Corruption in day to day life is more of a social issue. It is a value system where when I benefit its desirable, when I am the victim, it’s not. Only a true introspection can get us to its roots. It has to be tackled from inside and only then a Lokpal can be effective

An average Palestinian might in fact be the least interested in whether a state would be declared in September. Yet he or she will be the one will be the one whose life will be most profoundly impacted by any hasty act of folly by the PA. This has been demonstrated by a long history of disappointing actions by the PA

What is money? The conversion of nature into goods, and relationships into services. But this conversion cannot proceed much farther, due to resource depletion and the inability of society and biosphere to sustain more damage

Economic localisation implies an adaptation to cultural and biological diversity; therefore, no single ‘blueprint’ is appropriate everywhere. The range of possibilities for local grassroots effort is as diverse as the locales in which they would take place

The family of humanity appears not to have much more time, perhaps a couple of decades if we are lucky, in which to make necessary changes in our conspicuous overconsumption/hoarding lifestyles, the endless expansion of overproduction by big-business enterprises, and its unbridled overpopulation activities. Humankind may not be able to protect life as we know it or preserve the integrity of Earth, even during the years many of us are alive

The decision by leaders of the Sub Central of the Indigenous Territory and National Isiboro Secure Park (TIPNIS), to initiate a 500-kilometre protest march on Bolivia's capital of La Paz capital has ignited much debate about the nature of Bolivia’s first indigenous led-government

During recent weeks, evidence has piled up that U.S. and European economies, far from recovering, are swirling back into recession. Failure of American politicians to address the federal debt crisis, the U.S. credit rating downgrade, and increasing fragility of European economies have investors running for the hills

Millions of Americans who never think about climate change now know that the actress Daryl Hanna was arrested in Washington last month, and that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is an environmental threat. Millions even have some inkling what “tar sands” are. Among the 1253 arrested over the course of the two-week “rolling” sit-ins were writer-activist Bill McKibben; James Hansen, the world's most renowned climate scientist

The IDF is training settler “security squads” in the West Bank and preparing to arm them with stun grenades and tear gas ahead of an expected yes vote for Palestinian statehood in the United Nations General Assembly later this month

A view of the true map that exists in Palestine reveals how completely Israel has acted in consuming Palestinian land. The millions of Palestinians, who at one time in 1947 lived on approximately 97% of the land, now have, under the occupation less than 14% remaining. Yet their population virtually equals that of the Jews

From an Israeli point of view, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the ideal American politician. Although many in the US government aspire to her level of commitment to Israel, few can measure up to a dedication that extends beyond the very interests of her own country

If the jobs crisis and the current recession are truly the most serious in a half-century, then it makes no sense to be offering jobs in America to people from other countries. As such, Obama should impose a moratorium on all immigration until the unemployment rate falls below a certain level

Fuelled by the HIV pandemic and the spread of drug-resistant strains, tuberculosis (TB) has re-emerged as a major threat to global health. TB is a curable disease that continues to affect millions of people globally each year, and is a leading cause of death in HIV positive people

The humanitarian crisis in Libya is deepening as NATO-backed forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) continue their offensive to crush forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with the assistance of NATO bombing and special forces troops

Peak oil might hit sometime during the next five years. How might this affect the world economy. We we examine important dynamics about oil prices, some misunderstood by many writing about Peak Oil — from doomsters to cornucopians. The bottom line: we cannot reliably forecast what will happen. Peak oil might have little effect — or crush the economy

Looking back on the early 21st century from its midpoint, historians (of a sort) will regard it as the Age of Insanity. Who would believe that such a large proportion of the world's grain harvest would be turned into fuel for automobiles, each of which was a colossal example of inefficiency, a 1,000-kg metal vehicle with a single passenger?

The United States is watching the violence in Syria "with horror”, said White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney recently. The “horror”, of course, is the result of ongoing U.S. interference in Syria's internal affairs aimed at destabilising Syria

How do we overcome, or at least reduce, the negative impact of the 9-11 episode? Both the centres of power in the West and certain elements in the Muslim world should be prepared to come to grips with some irrefutable truths

Only a sustained campaign with massive mobilizations has the possibility of achieving the united goals of the labor and environmental movements. The demand for a federal jobs program that builds an alternative energy infrastructure and other green public works has the ability to inspire millions of people to act

Whenever Gandhi undertook fast he called it either repentance or self purification. He never insisted that his demands must be accepted as it is much less at the cost of democratic institutions. In fact he did not fast against Government. To say that only my demand is right and there can be no other point of view is not only undemocratic but authoritarian stand directed against democratic institutions

An unclassified US State Department cable recently published on the WikiLeaks web site supports reports of a 2006 US massacre of civilians, including women and small children, in Iraq’s Ishaqi district

Muslims join the nation in commemorating the 10th anniversary of this ghastly tragedy with an optimism that the state of present anti-Muslim campaign in the name of war on terrorism will recede in due course of time as happened during the Second World War with the Japanese Americans who also endured similar national intolerance, social prejudice and legal injustice

Chairman Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai have gone from heroic revolutionary leaders to rather common high caste Brahmin politicians in expensive suits, watches and ties. They went from speeches about smashing the state and Cultural Revolution to promises about millennium development goals and private finance initiative. What happened?

Saturday, September 3, was the Saturday of the citizen in Israel. The protest movement brought 460,000 people onto the streets to create a new socio-economic agenda. No government can remain indifferent to that many calling, “The people demands social justice!” The hope is to gain a new social contract, which will overthrow neo-liberal capitalism and create in its place a welfare state

How many times have you heard it: if we could tap into the energy embedded in our copious waste streams, we could usher in a new era of energy independence—freeing ourselves of the need to support oppressive regimes who happen to sit atop the bulk of the oil reserves in the world. In fact, these sorts of claims are abundant enough to give the impression that we have a cornucopia of fresh (and sometimes not so fresh) energy solutions to pursue if we got really serious. This is a hasty and dangerous conclusion, so in this case, waste makes haste

The UN Panel of Inquiry’s Report failed to reflect an objective and unbiased position . Both Turkey and Israel have now entered a tense stand-off, a cold war of sorts. While it is unlikely to hot up in any tangible sense, the thaw will take some time to come

Next week, student and local community activists will present a petition to the University of Colorado Board of Regents, urging it to remove from the university’s stock portfolio all companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip

Having achieved regime change in Libya through military intervention, the Western powers and their regional allies now have Syria firmly in their sights as part of their plans for re-dividing the resource-rich Middle East

Lying by omission and commission is not peculiar to the Australian ABC - it is the entrenched practice of Mainstream media in all the other Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies in which Big Money buys truth, votes and policy. We must restore democracy by exposing Mainstream media lying

By means of intimidation and the proffering of small bribes, the work force is induced to transmute their body's vitality and soul's pothos into the profits of an advantaged, ruthless few. In this way, one's pothos (Greek: yearning plus libido) is rendered into the convenient pathos (alienation, paranoia, displaced rage, consumer addiction) of the corporate age

Spain has been in serious economic difficulties long before the latest jolt to ‘The System’ - that delusional and criminal fairyland which soon turned into the Global Financial Crisis. The Spanish economy, the European Union's fifth largest, slumped into recession during the second half of 2008, reeling under the twin blows of the collapse of a labour-intensive construction boom and of the G.F.C.

Will Meena Khalkho's case be picked up by the mainstream media like they did Jessica Lall's? Or will the difference in her political environment and class position and, above all, her distance from Delhi, be too much to bridge?

It has now been confirmed that the Anna Hazare-led so-called ‘second freedom struggle’—as some sections of the media have mistakenly chosen to call it—has close links with the RSS. From conceptualizing this media-propelled movement to successfully organizing it, the RSS, it appears, played a key role in it

“Necessity is the mother of Invention” is a well proven fact; similar has been the case with women of Kashmir. The armed conflict has imposed on them new alien roles, which they have readily accepted and are fulfilling the responsibilities of the same

Have no doubt — if the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is approved, we will be back, and our numbers will grow. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must find a leader who is worthy of our dream

The long-awaited United Nations inquiry into Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, on May 31, 2010 has ruled that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is both legal and appropriate

The measures being imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis have evoked protests all over Europe. There were massive strike struggles by workers in France last October; Spain has seen the emergence of a new youth movement, the ‘indignados’, earlier this year; and England had seen the emergence of a militant anti-austerity movement. A reported 50% of Greece’s population supports what’s called the ‘We Won’t Pay’ offensive

For Africa, the war is far from over. The African continent must recognise that NATO's lashing out is a sign of desperation, of impotence, of its inability to stop the inevitable rise of Africa on the world stage. Africa must learn the lessons from Libya, continue the drive towards pan-African unity, and continue to resist AFRICOM. Plenty of Libyans will still be with them when they do so

The question “What is in a name?” is not appropriate with regards to the Eelam Tamils. After all, a people do not wage a struggle for decades and sacrifice over 200000 lives for a rose to be named differently. Considering the Eelam Tamils’ political struggle now, the more apt Shakespearean question to be posed is “To be or not to be”!

Now that the financial and political components of the present system have discredited themselves, a fluid situation exists that might allow more viable options to emerge. Local green initiatives, in particular the Transition Towns movement, are gaining in strength and number(s), but do they have the potential to develop the capacity needed at a national level to transform societies’ energy and transport infrastructures?

A new batch of economic data released Thursday reaffirms that the world economy is slowing disastrously. Manufacturing activity in Europe shrank for the first time in two years in August, while Canada announced that its economy contracted in the second quarter

“Good wishes” for “revolution” and its connections are now coming to light: “revolution” is “connected” with national interests of the world powers and oil companies’ benefit, with “reputed” oil traders and minister! Everything is “fair” and “just” in war, revolution and friendship! Ethics and moral standing of “revolution stand” above all ethics and morality! These facts are helping people in countries learn lessons in a charged world

Last month Wards Auto published a story pointing out that the world's motor vehicle count was now over 1 billion. As could be expected, registered vehicles in China grew by 27.5 percent to 78 million last year

The Holy Triumvirate — The United States, NATO and the European Union — recognizes no higher power and believes, literally, that it can do whatever it wants in the world, to whomever it wants, for as long as it wants, and call it whatever it wants, like "humanitarian"

Iceland, the country which hosts the world's oldest democracy - since 930, and whose citizens have managed to effect change by going on demonstrations and banging pots and pans, has seen a revolution without weapons. Why have the rest of the Western countries not even heard about it?

Many of the 70,000 “third country national”(TCN) service workers employed in Afghanistan and Iraq “recount having been robbed of wages, injured without compensation, subjected to sexual assault, and held in conditions resembling indentured servitude by their subcontractor bosses,” reports Sarah Stillman in a June 6th article in The New Yorker magazine titled “The Invisible Army.” In fact, the system resembles nothing so much as a twisted form of modern slavery

It is this desire to build empires and collect more profits with false notion of spreading wealth to all that is depriving today’s farmers from their fertile land, tribals from their homes in rich mineral deposit areas, the rural poor from their meager sustaining income and creating a super-divide between two Indias. This is the real corruption which we are reluctant to face and call a spade a spade

The title above, “Harud gov saridd” means Harud fell cold. The on-going extensive debate on the postponement of the proposed literary festival, Harud (Autumn) Litfest in Kashmir from 24-26 September has many colours. Some say it was the vested interest of the people who opposed the festival. Some even say that it was “Islamic fundamentalism”. How can a person with intellect raise such queries? I doubt the intellect now

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